William Bradford (colonel)

William Bradford (died 28 June 1778) was a colonel of the Continental Army and the aide-de-camp to Major-General Charles Lee. Bradford was involved in a plot to assassinate George Washington in 1778 along with Life Guard Sergeant Thomas Hickey, and the two of them were executed by hanging on 28 June 1778.

Biography
William Bradford was a colonel in the Continental Army and the chief-of-staff to Major-General Charles Lee, who frequently conspired to replace George Washington as commander-in-chief with himself. Bradford believed that Lee would make a better commander, praising his essay "Thoughts of a Free Man", which gave Washington the epithet, "The Bastard of Brandywine", and proceeded to insult his career as the commander-in-chief. These views put Bradford at odds with fellow staff officer Benjamin Tallmadge, who was the chief of intelligence under Washington in 1777. They engaged in a fight one night at Morristown during late 1777, and they had a lasting rivalry afterwards; on 28 June 1778, he ordered his troops to fall back towards the trees rather than hold the line, as Tallmadge had instructed the men to do. Later, Tallmadge received word from Culper Ring spy Robert Townsend that Bradford had been involved in a plot to assassinate Washington, which was masterminded by Governor William Tryon of New York and acting Mayor of New York City David Matthews. Bradford was gagged and sent to a tent, and Sergeant Thomas Hickey was sent to retrieve him. However, Caleb Brewster snuck into the tent and saw Hickey about to kill Bradford, and he had both of them tied up. Both of them were sentenced to death for leading a cabal within camp to murder Washington, although the Provost-Marshal's sentence of death for them was for counterfeiting, not treason. As the Provost-Marshal read out the charges, Hickey shouted out that his aim was to kill Washington, so Brewster - the executioner - threw both of them from the gallows. Hickey fell so hard that he was decapitated, while Bradford suffocated, with saliva foaming out of his mouth until someone shot him in the heart with a pistol, ending his suffering.